Mitakihara High School of the Dead
by ant0nym
Summary: Just like it sounds. Alternatively, an examination of the parallels between life of a Puella Magi and of someone caught up in the throes of a zombie apocalypse. T: For blood, gore, tragic turns of fate, death by dismemberment, acts of cannibalism, and romance. I own nothing, neither PMMM, Dawn of the Dead, Highschool of the Dead, or any other of the Dead.
1. Chapter 1

**Mitakihara High School of the Dead**

Chapter 1: Tame Compared to What Will Follow

* * *

"Sayaka, you'll be late for school!"

With a regretful glance in the mirror, the young blue-haired freshman pulled herself away from the mirror. "Coming, Mom!" Her bow was decidedly lopsided, and the wrinkles in her shirt had remained impervious to her attempts to try and smooth them out. Running fingers through her untidy, shoulder-length hair, Sayaka grabbed her favorite hairpin from it's place on her nightstand. Pulling back at her brilliant turquoise hair, she frowned at the sense of clinging dampness. _Overslept. Again._

"Sayaka!"

Rolling her eyes, the young woman strode over to her desk, sweeping the various books and papers and pens littering the table into her backpack. Yawning, she bent over to pick up a long, lumpy duffle bag, straightening with a grunt. Glancing at the shelf of trophies above her bed as she left, she couldn't help perking up a little, looking forward to afternoon practice.

"SAYA- oh, there you are. You're going to be late-"

"Yeah, I know, Mom. Thanks." Sayaka used that ironic tone of voice that drove her parents up the wall. _Always with the nagging, sheesh._ She grabbed a slice of bread, looking at the toaster hopefully before glancing at the digital display on the microwave. _Dammit_.

The television was on in the background. Pictures of helicopters, and a shot of a city, nothing that held her interest once she saw the footage was from Tokyo. "_-residents are being asked to remain calm, but avoid contact with others as much as poss_-" She got her news exclusively from the internet.

"You'd better hurry," her mother said meaningfully. Sayaka sighed, turning toward the door.

"-_virulent strain of flu. To repeat_-"

"I'll be home late. Practice." The last word was muffled as the blue-haired freshman walked out the door, stuffing half of the piece of bread in her mouth as she left. Grinning with her mouth full at the sight of her mother's expected look of disgust, she kicked the door shut behind her.

" _-the Emergency Disaster Countermeasure Office is requesting that all residents within the greater Tokyo area avoid-_"

* * *

"No Mami-san today?"

Madoka grinned at her friend's obvious disappointment. The pinkette had waited patiently for Sayaka at their usual spot by the park; the walk to the high school being in a different direction that they'd taken the previous year. She'd been just about to leave, despite her determination to give her friend every chance to miraculously appear as the minutes ticked by… and then she'd seen her, lugging that large bag under her arm and jogging down the street. After a brief, breathless greeting, her first reaction had been to notice the missing blonde.

"She was going in early this morning, something about a project she was working on." Madoka shrugged, the studies of the older girl being a mystery to her.

"Wonder what she's working on," Sayaka wondered aloud, heading off in the direction of the school.

"I don't know, but it's probably something science-y," the smaller girl guessed.

Azure eyes sparkled with mirth. "Madoka-chan, do you remember-"

"-the time Mami-san did all those cooking 'experiments'?" the pinkette finished, laughing at her friend's startled expression. It was a common memory that Sayaka brought up, and one that she was fond of as well. "Yes, I certainly do! I gained five pounds that week!" She couldn't help giggling as the blunette reached out and poked her in the belly.

"You could do with another five pounds," Sayaka half-joked. Madoka was still one of the smaller girls in their grade, and had been slow to… blossom. Before her friend could get self-conscious, she continued an earlier train of thought. "We should get her to do that again!"

Madoka eyed her friend, considering. "I doubt it would be difficult to convince her. If you asked, I just know she'd-"

"M-me? I'm n-not asking her," the blunette stuttered, color flooding back into her cheeks. Madoka grinned up at her innocently.

"But, if you want cake so bad…"

"She'll do it if _you _ask her!" Sayaka half-suggested, half-implored. They'd begun hanging out again with the amazing blonde earlier this year. The three had known each other casually in junior high, but hadn't seen much of the older girl once Mami had made the transition to high school.

"Did you like the cake… or hanging out with Mami-san all week?" Madoka asked craftily. The blunette at her side stumbled, nearly tripping before pinwheeling her arms to catch herself.

"What? What are you… That cake was delicious, and you know it!" Sayaka fumed, mortified at nearly falling on her face.

"Okay, okay." Madoka grinned, disarming the blunette's suddenly sour attitude. "With midterms coming up, maybe she'll be able to hang out a little more. Afterwards, I mean," she finished.

Sayaka sighed. That was a long time away. Two weeks… _Seems like the only time I see Mami-san is walking to school, and now I don't even get that_. "That'd be nice. Oh, and I have practice after school. If you don't want to walk home alone, you could come watch..."

* * *

"Hello Kaname-san! Miki-san!" The green-haired young woman strode up to the pair of friends at Sayaka's locker. The blunette stopped trying to stuff her backpack into the damn thing and turned to look at their old friend.

"Good morning, Hitomi-chan!" Madoka greeted, just like it was the old days.

_Like she always does, _thought Sayaka. The blunette simply muttered "Hey."

Hitomi had been busy taking advantage of all of the opportunities her family's wealth had provided. She had always been popular and admired, but intensive after-school cram sessions had turned her into something of a phenomenal student. Add to that her participation in several extra-curricular clubs, and the fact that she was still dating Kyousuke, and Sayaka wasn't sad that the green-haired girl had been moved into a higher tiered class.

She wasn't _happy_. Or _jealous_. Just… not sad.

The elegant young woman grinned widely, looking entirely sincere. She made a show of digging into her tiny, obviously designer flap bag. Madoka, knowing full well what the black bag was, and represented, with it's interlocking diamond pattern, and the regular and backward "C" crossed in the middle. "I have those tickets I was telling you about." She held out four laminated cards, each proclaiming _Mitakihara Symphony_ along the upper edge.

"Oh, thank you Hitomi-chan! You are too kind." Madoka smiled, accidentally bumping into Sayaka's rib with her elbow before taking the offered tickets and slipping them into her much more modest shoulder bag.

"Yeah, thanks." Azure eyes narrowed. "Four?"

Hitomi grinned even wider, if that was even possible. "I thought you could bring a date. Both of you," she suggested. "Or, failing that, a friend?"

There was an uncomfortable pause; a bell rang and Hitomi excused herself. "Hope to see you there," she called, retreating down the hallway and joining up with a small cluster of friends Sayaka hadn't even noticed.

Blue eyes exchanged a look with pink, and the two girls shook their heads in unison.

* * *

'So, are we gonna go?" Sayaka whispered across the aisle, eliciting a quick shake of Madoka's head before she turned back, pretending to pay attention to what their math teacher was talking about. Some kind of complex geometry unit. Sayaka sighed, looking at the pinkette out of the corner of her eye as she, too, faced the front.

_Maybe she is actually listening to this,_ Sayaka mused, scribbling a stick-figure fight scene absently in the margin of her notebook. Her friend still had some growing and, er, filling out to do, but the blunette was amazed at the change in her lifelong friend during the past year or so. She'd long ago abandoned the pigtails, and wore her hair straight and long. The start of high school had seen a dramatic shift in the girl's determination, as well. Sometimes, Sayaka thought the only reason she hadn't flunked English yet was because of her study sessions at the Kaname house.

Like all school buildings in the city, the majority of Mitakihara High School was designed with an emphasis on openness, and here the designers had taken the concept to its extreme. Much of the building, including most of the inner walls, were entirely composed of glass. This gave the students a feeling that someone was always watching them, which the administrators pretended was good for character and helped reinforce positive social norms.

Sayaka unconsciously found her gaze drawn to the window. It was promising to be a beautiful day. The vista was impressive, the school sitting atop a modest hill, the panorama of Mitakihara displayed in the distance. Scratching at her nearly-dry scalp, she vowed to get up on time in the future. She'd been so rushed, she hadn't had a chance to stop and appreciate the fact that spring was finally here.

As she stared out at the manicured grounds, the blunette's eyes were drawn to movement. The entrance to the school was a wide iron gate; a gate that was locked shut once the final bell had rung. Someone had apparently overslept even worse than she had; someone was at the entrance. Squinting, she saw a hand grasping between the bars, futilely searching for the latch that would open it. _Sorry, not gonna work, you poor bastard,_ Sayaka thought. She knew from experience that the door was locked with a key, and your only real chance was to somehow get over the eight foot security wall.

Sayaka jumped in her seat as something tapped her shoulder. Looking back, she saw the new girl giving her a strange look. Brow furrowing in consternation, the blunette mimed "What?" before the girl pointed toward the front of the room before adjusting her thick, unflattering glasses.

Nosy little- Sayaka turned forward, to see the front half of the room, teacher included, gazing at her expectantly. The few seconds of silence stretched on uncomfortably. Blue eyes flashed to the side, seeing Madoka's undersized hand clenching and unclenching. Three fingers, then four fingers. Three, then four, again.

"Um… seven?" Seeing the look of dismay on her teacher's wrinkled old face, she blurted out "Just kidding! It's thirty-four, duh." She held her breath.

"Very good," the aging man said, his voice sounding almost disappointed.

His voice droned on, and Sayaka glanced back, wondering what circumstances had led to that poor fool being so late-

Someone was approaching the gate, striding across the lawn with harsh purpose. Wincing in sympathy, Sayaka realized it was the Head Groundskeeper, Hokannin-san, and that hard-ass would ensure that whoever was out there would regret their tardiness.

The figures confronted one another; the one outside obscured by the wrought iron gate, but Hokannin-san's posture looked menacing enough to tell the tale. Still, the figure kept reaching, stupidly fumbling for a non-existent way to open the gate. The Head Groundskeeper reached out, grabbing the student's hand and fumbling with the lock. Undoubtedly she was about to see him grab the offending student and drag them to-

Sayaka gasped aloud as she watched the large man seem to run headlong into the gate, head and shoulders slamming into the wrought iron bars. Watching with uncomprehending eyes, the blunette noticed the man begin turning his head, and with dawning horror watched his feet kick and writhe against the bars. One of his arms began clawing at the air behind him, the other seemed to have disappear into the gate-

"Oh my god!" Sayaka cried, drawing the entire class's attention as she watched in horror. "What the f-"

"Miki-san!" Sensei's voice held a distinct note of warning. "What is the meaning of this outburst?"

The teacher's harsh shout snapped the blunette out of her shock. "There's something out there, it attacked Hokannin-san!" Heart pounding, Sayaka pointed out the window, to where she'd seen the Head Groundskeeper fall backward as the gate lurched open, leaving behind something hang disturbingly between the gate's framework of iron.

Nothing. There was nothing at the gate. "But… I saw…" The class continued to stare at her, a few of the girls beginning to whisper behind their hands. Yori, a boy with spiky black hair, snorted in disbelief. Nakazawa looked like he thought it was a joke, and even Mazushii looked like she felt embarrassed for her. Madoka looked at her with sincere concern.

"Perhaps you are suffering from something," the man said, trying to sound nonchalant, but something in his voice made Sayaka wonder if he was afraid of something. Nervous, at least, all of a sudden. His look was calculating. Had he seen it? "Do you require a visit to the nurse?"

"No, _I'm_ fine, but _he _might be hurt-" Suddenly the whispers got louder.

"Miki-san that is enough! Please report to the infirmary, unless you are being intentionally disruptive with another ill-conceived attempt at humor? Perhaps Assistant Principal Tetsuo needs to have another discussion with you-"

"I'm going!" the blunnette muttered furiously. She glanced at Madoka. "Could I be escorted by the health-"

"I highly doubt your particular ailment requires that another student's learning be disrupted," the man stated firmly. A little wild-eyed, and followed by waves of whispers that trailed in her wake, she left the room and headed toward the nurse's infirmary.

* * *

"Psst." Madoka turned around, bewildered. Usually only Sayaka whispered to her during class, who could be talking to her? She saw the black haired new girl who sat behind Sayaka, a transfer student from another city, staring at her. Surreptitiously, the girl tossed a small wad of paper, but Madoka was unprepared and merely watched it bounce of her shoulder to the ground, her small hand twitching seconds too late. The black haired girl, Homura something, was looking at the paper in disappointment.

While their sensei fiddled around with shapes and formula on the interactive screenboard, Madoka stooped over and slid the paper close with the tips of her fingers, grasping it and sitting up with a guilty expression on her face. Nobody, luckily, seemed to have been paying attention. Not even Masumi, who'd been staring at her all morning. She double-checked; the purple-haired girl was staring at the teacher, but as soon as Madoka glanced at her she turned her head, smiling nervously.

I wonder what's wrong with Masumi-chan? Usually, the girl was so friendly and talkative, but recently she'd been… awkward. That was the word. Shrugging, the pinkette bent over her secret message. The note read: _Is your friend sick? -Akemi Homura._

Smiling, the pinkette shook her head as she wrote, _No. She's just imaginative sometimes. -Kaname Madoka. _She neatly folded the paper into a triangle and tossed it to the transfer student. Her throw was poor, but the black-haired girl's hand deftly picked it up and unfolded it.

Just as she was beginning to understand what the sensei had been discussing, something bounced off the back of her neck. She half-turned, seeing the guilty look on the pale girl's face. She smiled to dispel the thought of any bad feelings, noticing and grabbing the refolded paper. It was a triangle, just like she'd folded it. _Hadn't she read it? _Opening it, Madoka realized the girl had responded, and folded it back up just like she had.

_Have you heard about the sickness? The teachers aren't mentioning it. It sounds bad._

Madoka re-read the message. What was this girl talking about? Homura had joined their class a few weeks ago, and remained perpetually on the fringe. She sat alone, didn't really contribute much in class… if Madoka hadn't been so busy, she would have made an effort to welcome her to the new and undoubtedly strange class, but she just hadn't had the time, other than the standard pleasantries.

Now, she couldn't help wondering if the girl was a little unbalanced, like some of her classmates thought. She turned, catching the purple eyes of the transfer student watching her intently, and felt herself blush. She started to write a response, thinking hard. _No, I haven't_-

But then, she remembered something in the background this morning. Her mother was away on business, due back in tonight, so it had been her father's duty to wake everyone up, which he did in his customary way. As the public radio announcer's deep, calming voice had boomed throughout the house, Madoka had largely ignored the political news and information regarding foreign conflicts in places that had little meaning to her. But there'd been something about a virus; some kind of corn-teen or something, and she remembered it had been in a big city. Maybe Kyoto? She crossed out what she'd been writing. _What do you know about it?_

She passed the note back, this time landing it on the girl's desk. She saw her purple eyes devour the words eagerly, an excited sparkle dancing in them as she looked up at the pinkette.

* * *

Sayaka had stopped in a hallway near the bathrooms, the only rooms without walls you could see through. She'd made her way to a spot overlooking the entrance. She couldn't see much. Was that dark spot a stain? Was that a branch over there, or… Shaking her head, the blunette blew the hair out of her eyes with an exasperated puff of air. Maybe she was seeing things, or had misinterpreted. Sighing, but with a vague sense of relief, she turned to head back towards the nurse's office, trying to think of some way she could be sick.

She stopped, an icy chill running down her back. Turning back to the window, she looked at the gate, watching.

It moved. There must have been a breeze, because the gate swayed inward before slowly closing. Sayaka knew that this gate would never, ever be left open by any of the custodial staff, most especially the Head Groundskeeper.

Feeling her stomach tying itself into a knot, Sayaka bolted for the stairwell. She had to get a better look, figure out what was going on. Someone in authority needed to know about what she saw… but they needed to take her seriously. She was the proverbial girl-who-cried-kappa, but if she could find some something, some kind of _evidence_...

* * *

Madoka was getting scared. Akemi-san had described some graphic symptoms; the fever, the spasms and vomiting and rumors of bleeding from all manner of orifices. She'd then gone on to suggest that this problem was more widespread than the government was letting on. The pinkette was at first skeptical, then nervous, and increasingly felt panicked at the thought of some contagion. _But it was just some isolated outbreaks, right? This is something the government has been preparing to deal with._ Swine flu, bird flu… so many contagions seemed to develop inside their great neighbor China, it had been national policy to implement security measures for just such an epidemic. _Right? Like, they had vaccines and stuff ready, didn't they?_

* * *

Stuffing a discarded pencil in the doorway to prevent it from shutting and locking her out, Sayaka crept across the courtyard, steeling her nerves. She glanced back and forth, but there was nothing, no movement, anywhere. She imagined the stares of her classmates, the entire front of the school able to see her as she strode the last dozen meters.

She'd sighed, actually, as she approached. A sense of absurd relief as she noticed nothing. What she'd seen outside was a lump of discarded clothing. The gate was open, but there was no-

Five meters from the gate, she saw the dark, glistening wetness, a red-brown smear leading across the lush, green lawn. Away, toward the loading docks.

I have a really bad feeling about this. She eyed the gate; if her suspicions were at all justified, something horribly dangerous was inside the wall. Mass murderer, serial killer, homicidal maniac… now might be her only chance to escape.

Shaking her head, she bolted back toward the main entry. Nobody knew. She had to warn them. She had to keep her friend safe. Feeling the weight of an awesome responsibility descend on her shoulders, Sayaka tore through the hallway on the way to the infirmary.

* * *

Homura read and re-read the pinkette's responses, noting the girl's sincere need for reassurance. Sadly, she shook her head. She was just about to scrawl a hasty response, spurred on by Madoka's yearning glance back at her, making her heart do funny things for a moment. It hardly mattered that the girl looked _especially _at the wrinkled, folded paper on the transfer student's desk. A gentle chime caused everyone's heads to turn, staring at the speaker hanging in the corner of the room.

Madoka felt a pang of foreboding, wondering what would cause the principal to give a school-wide announcement in the middle of second period.

* * *

Pale faced, Sayaka burst through the infirmary doors, shouting about people getting murdered. The nurse had silenced her with a stern exclamation of disapproval.

"I'm telling you, I saw his arm ripped right off!" Sayaka said forcefully, drawing several strange looks from the few other student's in the infirmary. Someone was laying on a cot, covered in a blanket, occasionally shaking from a fit of coughing.

"Miki Sayaka, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You're upsetting these students," the nurse waved vaguely at the occupied chairs, and Sayaka noticed that the other students were looking at her like she was crazy.

"But-"

"Go back to class, young lady. I don't have time for your foolishness, some people here are actually in need of medical attention," she finished, glancing over at the girl on the cot. She looked at Sayaka closely for a moment. "You haven't been feeling…. feverish, have you?" she asked, as if the thought had just occurred to her.

"Um, no, not re-"

"Then get out of here!" she roared, causing several of the other students to jump.

Chiming preceded an announcement of some kind. Sayaka stopped just outside the door, listening.

* * *

"Students and faculty, this is Principal Akira. I'm sure some of you have heard talk about some kind of outbrea-, er, _illness _that's going around." _I knew it,_ thought Homura, sitting on the edge of her seat, purple eyes sparkling with excitement meeting the worried pink pair that glanced back at her. "I've just received word that the EDCO has issued a city-wide warning, and will be implementing a brief period of voluntary quarantine." _Oh no! _worried Madoka. "School will be cancelled for this afternoon; after third period, students will-"

* * *

_No school! _celebrated Sayaka automatically, before there was a loud banging noise over the intercom, and the principal's voice got stern.

"Excuse me. _Excuse _me. Hey! You can't just barge in… Hokannin-san? W-wait, are you… oh god, what's wrong with you? Are you sick? My god, man. _Your arm!_ Are you… no. No! NOOO! Get off me!"

Behind her, Sayaka heard the nurse making shushing sounds to the worried murmuring of the students in her care. The blunette, wild-eyed, took off down the hallway, heading back to her classroom. _Madoka_!

* * *

Everywhere, throughout the school, students were turning to their neighbors, wide-eyed, shocked looks seeking some kind of solace as the sounds got progressively worse. An inhuman growling, like a wild animal, faded in an out. The could hear a struggle, grunting sounds, paper rustling, something falling over. "AHHH!" came an amplified cry, and everyone winced or put hands to their ears as they heard a grown man begin to scream. "NOOO! HELP ME, SOMEONE HELP! GOD NOOO! AGGRURGGGUGGgguggghghh-" the last was a hideously clear gurgling, liquid sound, and then a low, horrifying moan echoed throughout the school.

Madoka was looking at the speaker, waiting to hear their principal come back on, announcing everything was alright, it was all a joke. A strange, confusing, crazy joke. Homura glanced briefly at their sensei, who was himself staring at the source of the hideous sound, a blank, shell-shocked look on his ancient face.

The low, terrible moan grew startlingly loud, and, horrifyingly, impossibly, a second, equally hideous moan joined the first, low and monstrous over the intercom, an unholy duet that reverberated through the glass halls.

* * *

**If you're squeamish, probably best to stop now.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_It Begins..._

* * *

Somebody screamed.

"C-calm down! Everyone, remain in your seats." As the sensei moved towards the door, Madoka glanced around. The rooms on either side were also filled with suddenly distraught, panicking students. Her own nerves had already been on edge, with all of Homura's talk of the disease, but the screams and moans were just too much.

Shaking, she glanced over her shoulder. "D-did you know about th-this?" she stammered, aware that nobody was paying the sensei's instructions any heed.

Somewhere, down the hall, someone screamed. Homura's eyes darted around nervously, and she shook her head.

The worried murmurs became panicked chatter, and soon, all of the classrooms had erupted in shouting. Madoka cringed, pressing hands over her ears as chaos engulfed the school.

* * *

Sayaka skidded around the corner, her well-worn sneakers barely finding purchase on the tiled floor. It was two more strides before she noticed _them_.

Falling backwards, feeling her tailbone collide painfully with the unforgiving floor, the blunette made a whimpering sound in the back of her throat, blinking back tears of pain.

A shambling figure, a well-built man of middle years, turned his head, piercing her with bloodshot eyes. _Not bloodshot,_ she thought, gritting her teeth as she scrambled across the floor with hands and feet, trying to back the hell up as fast as possible. The eyes were completely red around the iris, no white at all. Like they were swimming in blood-

The man was dressed in the familiar garb of one of the maintenance personnel, torn along the shoulder. Above the man's arm, a horrible crimson gash bled freely, a substantial chunk of the skin torn away; in the second that she watched, it seemed to throb and darken before her eyes. Blood soaked the dark uniform, the entire left side coated in a glistening sheen.

The smell hit her; it was like the man had shit his pants, the stench making her gag.

Two meters away, the man lunged forward. Sayaka felt something grab her foot as she desperately backpedaled on all fours, jerking her leg as hard as she could. Grasping fingers fell away as her laces came undone, and she pushed herself off the ground before sprinting in the opposite direction.

Heart pounding at triple speed, Sayaka felt every stride in her poor, abused coccyx, but adrenaline and fear helped her grit her teeth and bear it. Glancing back, she saw the thing stumble after her, the distance widening. Then she saw the two other figures, one wearing a cafeteria uniform coated in red. The other's head seemed to slump, chin resting on collarbone like it was gazing at it's feet. As the thing, because it was obviously just that, now, a thing… as it turned, she saw the gaping wound beneath its jaw, wet, glistening muscle visible. The lurching horror's throat had been torn, nearly to it's spine, swaying limply as it spun to face her.

With a horrible, gurgling moan, the creature strode forward, and the three began to stagger toward her at a jog.

_Oh shit oh shit oshitoshitoshitoshit!_

* * *

"Sorry, Kyousuke-kun. She'll be back soon, I know it." Looking worried, the grey-haired boy walked back to his friends. Madoka swallowed, trying to reassure herself as well as the musician. _She'll be back._

"Kaname-san, we should go." Madoka frowned, glancing at the raven-haired girl who tugged at her sleeve insistently. "We should leave."

"But, we are supposed to stay…" The pinkette's head was spinning. Their teacher had only been gone for a few minutes; at least the horrible noises over the intercom had stopped. So far, no students had left their rooms, but everywhere, everyone was looking tense, and several groups had gathered near the glass doors that opened into the hallway. "And Sayaka-chan…"

One of the upperclassmen was the first to leave. Followed quickly by the majority of his class, the juniors exited in a heaving mass of bodies, everyone trying to be the first one out. Immediately, the jumble disintegrated, students flowing down the halls in both directions, a few remaining to look around in confusion.

The dam burst. Students began running around, some fleeing into the hallway, others pacing the room in agitation. Shouting and cursing students pushed one another in a seething mass, some briefly trampled during the mass exodus. Clusters of students hotly debated what to do, shrill voices and panicked arguments erupted during this new wave of confusion.

Masumi watched the pinkette talking with the new girl. She'd struck up conversations with Madoka almost every day for nearly a month. Today was supposed to be the day… She watched the transfer student, envying the attention she was recieving. _It was supposed to be me._ Frowning, she took a step forward before stopping. "Let's go," Hikaru was saying. "This is starting to creep me out."

"Other people already left," Yori stated, running a hand through his spiky black hair. "We gotta get out of here-"

"Masumi-chan, what do you think?"

Scratching at her purple hair, Masumi shrugged. "Probably leave. I'll go see what everyone else is going to do," she offered, resolutely heading to the corner where Homura was talking to Madoka.

"Ah, hello, Kaname-san. Akemi-san." Masumi bowed slightly less for Homura than she did to Madoka, whose troubled face lit up in a smile.

"Hi, Masumi-chan! Are you alright?" Madoka's question cut right to her heart, the earnest concern and worry shining through her eyes and resonating through her voice.

"Y-yes, Kaname-san, thank you for your concern." Trying to avoid drawing attention to the sudden bloom of color her cheeks had developed, she got straight to the point. "We think it's time to leave. This is scary. Would you consider coming with us?"

Madoka grinned, heartened by the offer. "Oh wow, thank you Masum-"

"No, we won't," Homura stated flatly. The pinkette turned to stare at her with a hurt expression, and the purple-haired girl could barely restrain the sharp burst of rage.

"Something's wrong, you need to-"

Homura drew Madoka close, staring daggers at the other girl. "I don't think it's a good idea to get stuck following them," she said, nodding at the girl's friends. "We're better off by ourselves."

"But… safety in numbers…?" Madoka asked, confused.

"Any one of them might have whatever it is." Homura whispered. "The disease."

Madoka's lips compressed into a tight line as she thought.

"Madoka?" Masumi's voice was trying to be hopeful, but sounded so plaintive in her own head it shamed her. She'd planned it all out. Today was going to be the day that she finally approached the dainty pinkette, the girl she thought about all the time. She'd brought the pinkette's favorite dessert, and would just happen to offer to share it with her, and then they'd get to talking, and she'd invite the petite little cutie out… not on a date, exactly. Just two friends, spending some time together, alone and uninterrupted.

_I'd be such a good friend! _She thought desperately. _And more, so much more_… Sighing, she refocused on the object of her affection, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable under her adoring gaze.

"I'm sorry," Madoka began, and Masumi's world briefly crumbled. "I… I think I'm going to wait for Sayaka-chan," she said apologetically. Homura groaned in exasperation.

The noises in the hallway abruptly took on a different tone. The panicked shouts and general hollering that had been coming from the hallway as students piled out to join the growing number who'd left... _changed_. It wasn't subtle; suddenly the excitable, tense noises shifted to screams of surprise and terror.

Everyone in the classroom spun around, heads turning to face the exit door to the north, the one leading back to the cafeteria and gymnasium. That's where the screams were coming from. The double doors burst open, and a crowd of students was running back in, some entering classrooms and overturning desks, others fleeing down the hallway toward the other exit.

Someone, another freshman, Madoka thought, slipped as he came through the doors, his head colliding with the floor in a terrific impact. Nobody helped him rise; in fact he was trod upon by several of the panicked mob. Reaching out, the pinkette found the hands of Homura and Masumi without looking, her entire world focused on the poor, dazed boy as she struggled to rise. Pushing himself up with one arm-

Then _they _were upon him.

Screaming, Madoka turned away, but it was too late. Two shambling figures, draped in glistening, wet clothing, fell upon the prone boy. Claw-like hands descended, clutching and tearing, and two hideous, slavering maws opened wide-

It had gone deathly silent as every single student held their breath.

The boy screamed. The sound, filled with terror and despair, seemed to shake the glass walls. One of the monsters clamped down on his neck, and the scream wavered, gurgling hideously as the thing tore its head away, taking a chunk of flesh with it.

Gasps and moans, weeping and prayer, the thump of someone hitting the floor in a faint. The sounds were meaningless; Madoka found herself fixated on the arterial spray that spattered the glass wall, crimson flowing down the pane in waves. Glancing at the thing that had done this unspeakable thing, she saw with sick fascination that it appeared to be _chewing _the gobbet of the poor boy's throat.

The pinkette leaned over and emptied her stomach noisily, Homura dancing backward just in time to avoid the mess.

* * *

_I should check on the girls,_ Mami thought. The classes on the upper level had, for the most part, fled the building. She'd considered making her way to the faculty area to see what was really going on. Obviously, the principal had been attacked. Combined with all this talk about some deadly super-flu…

But, she knew her friends were out there, relying on her guidance. She'd taken the pair under her wing, and had been surprisingly pleased at how much the girls had matured over the previous year.

Pulling up her thigh-high stockings, Mami ran her hands down the pleats of her short skirt. Not because they were sweaty. She wasn't nervous. Wasn't _very _nervous, at least. Taking a breath, the blonde gave her curls a tug and headed toward the stairwell.

* * *

"We need to go!" Homura was saying, shouting, but Madoka could only shake her head, trying to wake up from the horrible nightmare that had intruded into her normal, quiet life. She jumped, startled, as the doors burst open, drawing her eyes from the two crouched forms, crimson dripping from their mouths as they bent over that poor boy.

Madoka felt all sense of hope drain out of her. As the figure, clad in the expensive-looking suit, shambled through the doorway, her eyes were not drawn to the several forms that followed close behind, lurching through the growing pool of dark blood that slowly seeped across the hallway. She saw only her sensei's face, the wrinkled, aged man hideously deformed in a hateful snarl. When he opened its mouth and moaned, Madoka felt the world go fuzzy and everything went blissfully dark.

* * *

Fumbling with the dial for her combination lock, Sayaka wiped her fingers on her blouse. _Of all the times to have a problem with my stupid locker combination_, she thought, desperately trying to keep it together.

She'd encountered more of the things after doubling back. After losing sight of the original three, she'd turned a corner and found herself staring into the cold, dead eyes of what must have been half of the office staff. As they'd turned, she'd continued down the hallway, hoping to reach the stairwell.

But the stairwell had been a scene straight out of hell. Blood, so _much _of it, spilling down the stairs, and something up above was screaming and pleading. Clamping her hands over her ears as the screams became more frantic, Sayaka backed out, trying to figure out what to do next.

She was trapped; the hallways and stairway leading back to the classrooms were all full of those things.

The dead. The walking, unquiet, restless dead. _Fucking zombies, _Sayaka thought. _And they said it would never happen._

If she couldn't find a clear path…

She'd have to clear a path for herself.

"YES!" she exclaimed, too loudly, as the lock popped open. Glancing around nervously, she reached in and grabbed the large, heavy duffel bag she lugged to school three days a week. With desperate need, she unzipped the entire length of the thing, revealing her equipment inside.

A long, shaky breath became a relieved sigh as she reached in, fingers clasping greedily.

* * *

_It smelled terrible. Like Tatsuya had pooped his pants again._ "Bad boy," Madoka murmured indistinctly, wrinkling her nose. Then something poked her firmly.

She blinked. "Homura-chan? Why are you up there?" It took a moment for the pinkette to realize she lay on the floor, a worried and impatient looking transfer-student standing above her.

Reaching down, Homura grunted as she helped the small girl back to her feet. She glanced around, seeing nothing but doom.

As her new friend had collapsed, the creatures had advanced into the hallway, carrying with them a miasma of excrement. Out of the six visible classrooms, perhaps three dozen students remained. Her teacher, along with the three that stumbled along behind him, had paused over the other pair, still feasting upon their fallen prey. After a moment, they continued on down the hallway, pressing against the glass after noticing the students who remained inside, smearing it with blood and saliva.

Homura could only watch with the remaining students in her room as the two crouched over the remains of the boy stood up, shambling over to join the other five. The ineffectual grasping and pushing became pounding and slamming as the creatures began to beat against the door, against the long glass wall, their fists battering and smashing.

Madoka blinked, feeling the world spin. Then, the sound of glass shattering drew her attention.

Four students remained in the room across the hall. They'd backed into the far corner, putting the teacher's desk between themselves and the door. As the glass began to crack, bloody streaks and fist-prints obscured the monsters for a moment before the entire pane shattered, sending a cascade of glass shards to the floor.

Even as they screamed, instinctively the students had shielded their eyes, and by the time they recovered, the creatures were upon them.

Madoka watched in horror as her former teacher dragged down a young girl, the struggle hidden behind the desk but her kicking, frantic legs all to visible, the screams all to clear. The other creatures lunged at the remaining students, another girl and a young man grabbed by the claw-like hands in an unbreakable grip.

"HELP US!" the boy cried, screaming as a bony hand was shoved through his abdomen, pinned against the wall. As the arm withdrew, a dark, wet rope seemed to spill out of the wound, and his screaming abruptly cut off.

The girl at his side, however, continued her screaming prayers, the fervent cries transforming into pure pain as her arm was wrenched behind her back with an audible snap. Homura saw the white of bone jutting through the shattered arm, as white as the teeth behind her screaming lips. Open mouths descended and as the screaming slowly faded, the pool of crimson from behind the desk spread across the floor with surprising speed.

"We've got to go!" Homura whispered fiercely. Two of the creatures, slow to join the others, lingered in the hallway, several meters from the door to their room. The pair looked up, down the hallway, as students from one of the far room fled in panic, lurching after their own prey.

It was now or never. "Nothing between us and the door," Homura whispered encouragingly. "But Kaname-san, we have to go now-"

To her dismay, she heard the sound of running, and looked up to see several of their classmates exit the room, the foolish boy Yori in the lead. Furious, she tugged on Madoka's arm, shooting a dark look at the purple-haired girl who stood near the doorway, looking torn.

"Go without me," Masumi called to her friends, none of which had noticed or expressed concern over her absence. The three hustled toward the double doors, gingerly stepping through the pool of coagulating fluid surrounding the mutilated corpse of the boy.

Hikaru stopped at the edge, taking a deep breath. As she braced herself to stride past the disgusting, torn body, with it's missing skin and exposed muscle and bone, she gasped, seeing the thing twitch out of the corner of her eye. Too late, she opened her mouth to call out a warning, but the thing shuddered, grasping out with both arms as Yori passed.

The spiky-haired boy's eyes widened in surprise, then dawning horror as the former classmate pulled him down, tearing into him with its teeth. Hikaru screamed as the creature's fingers latched around Yori's opened mouth, and with a sickening wrench the bottom half of the boy's face was torn off in a shower of blood. Something wet and pink dangled from the hole in his throat, but death was not quick to end poor Yori's suffering, and he was slowly eaten alive while his friend clutched helplessly at her green hair and screamed.

Hikaru couldn't hear the warnings through her screaming, and Madoka's shout had gone unheeded. Too late, she gasped for breath and heard the frantic sound from the room down the hall, turning just in time to see the pale, dead hands clasp around her throat as a crimson-stained, dripping maw leaned in…

* * *

Carefully poking her head around the corner, Mami looked both ways, scanning for danger as she caught her breath. A deadly strain of fast acting ebola, or North Korean terrorists, or crazed anti-government radicals… she'd been prepared for just about anything. Even the Chinese.

Not this.

Looking down, she focused herself inward, a cold, all-consuming sun sucking away her worldly concerns. Focusing on the nothing, she watched her hands cease their trembling. _I can do this._ For all she knew, she had friends counting on her.

* * *

Kyousuke scanned the shapes looming throughout the area, trying not to see them as individual beings. Gore spattered, red-eyed and moaning, the creatures were like something out of a nightmare.

Regretfully eying the blood-soaked hallway, the grey-haired boy acknowledged that there would probably be no violin practice today.

"Kyousuke-kun," tried Nakazawa, for what seemed like the fiftieth time, picking up another desk and placing it beside the doorway. "You gonna help me, man?"

The violinist shook his head to clear it. "Yes, sorry Nakazawa." His friend smiled and the two picked up another desk, filling in a perimeter around the walls. It seemed silly; what was a small desk going to do when the things were somehow able to break down the tempered glass with their fists? But it was something to do.

They were trapped.

After the failed attempt by Hikaru and company to flee, the zombies had lurched out of the classroom across the way, numbers swollen from the freshly killed students. They'd watched, sickened and fascinated and completely disgusted as the corpses had begun to twitch and shake, the partially-consumed bodies reanimating as if by some fell magic.

Less than a dozen students remained between the classrooms.

"We need to go out the south entrance," Homura stated, growing concerned by the far-off look in the pinkette's eyes. She turned her attention to the males. "No one has returned after heading through those doors."

The boys paused, glanced at one another, both thinking how ominous that particular way of phrasing it was.

"No one has returned, screaming and fleeing from zombies, after heading through those doors. Correct?" When she put it that way, it was easier to swallow. "So, we need to get out that way."

The brown-haired boy ran both hands through his long hair, grinning stupidly. "Okay, boss, you tell us what to do and we'll figure out how to do it."

Homura was unnerved, first thinking the boy was mocking her, then realizing he wasn't. Kamijou watched, blank-faced, seeming without opinion. He certainly hadn't been coming up with any ideas.

Madoka, comforted by the arm Masumi had lain across her shoulder, stared outside. The skyline was strange; not a cloud in the sky, but everything in the distance was dark, murky. She saw flashing lights in the distance, imagining security forces being called in to protect the students and faculty, on their way to rescue everyone. "I can see them! They're coming, they're coming for us!" Madoka cried, gleefully pointing out the window, her sense of relief palpable. The others, startled by her words despite the tone of voice, glanced at her, then out the window.

"Oh, damn…" Nakazawa breathed.

"It's burning," murmured Kyousuke. "Mitakihara is burning." _It's… beautiful._

"No, no, no nonononono." Madoka pulled at her hair, anything to distract her from this new disaster, watching the flashing lights disappear into the distance. Masumi clutched her rightly, pink and purple hair pressed together. Homura patted the pinkette on the back awkwardly, counting zombies.

"There's twelve in the hallway. Two between us and the south exit; ten to the north." Homura thought quickly. "We just need to get past those two…"

"But how?" Nakazawa asked, hoping for a better, different idea. "They grab you and it's over! No way we can get past them, there's not enough room in this stupid hallway to maneuver." Escape directly outside was impossible; the glass-like wall along the exterior was military-grade reinforced. Bulletproof, and certainly student-proof.

"Sayaka might be coming back," Kyousuke added. "Maybe we should just finish barricading and wait it out…"

Homura looked at him in disdain. "You think Miki-san is going to come back through those doors, with the ten zombies milling around? Even if she did, what purpose would it serve to save her a seat when we're trapped in here like cows waiting to be slaughtered?" She looked at him carefully; as a recent transplant and someone who kept to herself, Homura had been unable to shield herself from all the gossip and rumor that seemed to spread through the school like wildfire. "Isn't Shizuki-san your girlfriend? Shouldn't you be concerned with making sure she's safe?"

Kyousuke's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped slightly. _I'm in so much trouble,_ he thought, wondering how the prospect of a girlfriend's ire could, even momentarily, eclipse the situation he found himself in.

* * *

As the creatures outside began to moan, shuffling aimlessly about, Masumi knew exactly what she had to do.

"Madoka-chan," she began, daring to call the girl by that cherished nickname for the first time. "Be brave. We'll get out of this." Taking a deep breath, she stood up.

"I know what to do," she said, drawing the looks of the four other students left in the room. "I'm going to draw those two away. I'll run out the door, get their attention, and duck into that classroom," she pointed across the way, at the room with the shattered glass wall. "I'll run around the desks, keeping them busy, while the rest of you sneak out the door!" she finished with a smile, looking warmly at the obviously concerned pinkette.

"Masumi-chan, no, it's too dangerous."

Homura, who'd been listening with a complete lack of expression, chimed in. "It might be our only chance," she stated softly, nodding toward the north set of doors. The door swung inward, and a figure lurched into view, the silhouettes of several others visible through the briefly open doorway.

All appeared to be former students.

Madoka shuddered, watching Yori and Hikaru stumble about, their eyes hollow and blood red, clothing ripped and soaked with their life's blood. She felt a pair of arms encircle her from behind, and turned to see purple hair rest briefly on her shoulder. "Madoka-chan, I… I just wanted to say, now… I… I think… I'd really like... to be your friend," she finished, mindful of the stares of the others.

"I'd like that," Madoka breathed. "I'd like to be your… friend."

Before she could think of a reason not to, the purple haired girl planted a quick kiss on the shorter girl's cheek, blushing furiously before marching over to the door. "Be careful," Madoka pleaded. Nakazawa gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder, looking obviously relieved that it wasn't him going out there.

"I haven't been running cross-country since sixth grade just for fun," she smiled, trying to keep from hyperventilating. All the running, all the training, it all came down to this, the opportunity to save the person she had such intense feelings for. To be the hero!

She nodded, and Nakazawa opened the door while the others watched on, tense and hopeful.

Feeling her knees shaking as she walked, Masumi took a tentative step forward, then another. She glanced behind her, but the zombies on the far side of the hall milled about the pool of blood, remaining near the double doorway. She took another step, then another.

The two on her side of the hallway looked up in unison, blood red eyes staring out of pale, unhealthy faces that suddenly twisted as, moaning, the creatures advanced on her.

_Now or never_, she thought, backing up to make certain they were following before turning to run past the glass doorway the four others were staring out of.

_Oh my god, she's so brave!_ thought Madoka, heart in her throat as she hoped, _prayed _for the girls safety.

Glass crunched beneath her uniform-complaint shoes as Masumi darted into the abandoned, blood-drenched classroom, keeping her eyes off of the long arcs of gore that painted the wall behind the teacher's desk. She skipped past the rows of desks, turning to watch her two pursuers enter the room, waiting for an opening.

As soon as the zombies had stepped out of the hallway, Nakazawa opened the door. "Everybody out!" They hurried toward the south doors, amazed and thrilled at the success of their plan.

Clearing the purple hair out of her eyes, Masumi watched the pair of shuffling, bloody monsters approach, glancing down the hall to make sure the rest remained where they were. She couldn't help smiling as she saw a distinctive, diminutive pink-headed figure dash out of the room.

"Everybody back!" Nakazawa screamed, a dozen zombies just beyond the double-doors lunging at his heels. "Back!" Madoka felt a powerful grip take hold of her arm and drag her as she glanced between the onrushing horde and the brave, heroic girl in the room. "Masumi-chan!"

Masumi looked up, uncomprehending of what she saw. A wave of the creatures was pouring out of the southern doors, the supposedly safe doors, the place they were going to escape… Her eyes widened in horror-if she didn't get out of here, soon, she'd be cut off!

"Masumi-chan!"

Glancing at her two mindless opponents, she decided on immediate action. The approaching horde was already halfway to the glass door of their classroom. Gathering herself, she dodged out of the way as one of the creatures in the room with her lurched forward. arms outstretched. It's fingers tightened around her foot, and desperately she kicked away, but felt herself dragged to the ground.

"MASUMIIII!"

Twisting her torso, the purple-haired girl yanked her foot right out of her shoe, leaving the gore-faced monster to its prize as she scooted away. Standing, she spun, running toward the room with Madoka-

The fall had been costly. Madoka, sobbing, pressed up against the glass, obscured by the advancing mob of undead. _No_, Masumi thought. _This wasn't how it was supposed to happen_. Turning, she saw the rest of the zombies down the hall had been riled, and were advancing on her.

Panting, unable to catch her breath, heart aching like she was having some kind of attack, the purple-haired girl ducked into another classroom, leaning against the door once inside. Almost immediately, the door was pushed inward as the creatures pressed up against it. Fumbling with an outstretched foot, she slid a desk over and jammed it against the door.

The others were shouting at her, but behind two panes of glass the sound was muted; the banging and moaning much more pressing. "Help. Somebody! Help me!"

* * *

Madoka's throat was raw from shouting, and suddenly Homura's hand was wrapped around her mouth, stifling her. Sobbing, she could only watch as the purple-haired girl tried desperately to move the teacher's larger desk in front of the door, but only manage to drag it halfway across the room before the zombies burst through her makeshift barricade. Sobbing, she watched the girl duck underneath the grasp of one of the horrors, spinning the side as another approached. She tried to leap away from the next, but something managed to grab her skirt and she was pulled down.

"NOOOO!"

Sobbing, Madoka buried her head in Homura's shoulder, her body wracked with terrible pain as Masumi, a friend she hadn't known she'd had until today, was torn limb from limb, the pitiful, begging screams ending abruptly with a spray of vital fluid as first one arm, then another, were ripped from her body to be fed upon by the hungry mob of slavering ghouls.

* * *

Homura took a shaky breath, trying to enjoy what might be her final moments. Hugging the pinkette tightly, she considered that there were worse ways to go, than with Madoka in her embrace.

Then, realizing what would happen to her, to the sweet, innocent _pinkette_, after they died… coming back, hungry and twisted and monstrous...

There _were _no worse ways to go. This was, unquestionably, the worst.

* * *

**Not really OCs, these 'characters' are based off of Madoka's real classmates, none of whom have names so, yeah.  
**

**As always, any feedback is appreciated. Especially speculation. Who will die first? How? What would you do, if there was a Japanese zombipocalypse and you were a high school girl? Who do you think _should_ die first?**

**Any thoughts, ideas and tropes of the genre are very, very welcome. Some of the girls will probably escape the school; what happens next is open to suggestion.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_In the Hallway, Without a Pass_

* * *

Knowing that something was _wrong_ with her, that she should be terrified and horrified, Madoka felt nothing as she watched the hideous spectacle play out before her. Across the hallway, through blood-streaked glass, she stared as the group knelt greedily over Masumi. She blinked, rivulets of tears coursing down both cheeks. Distantly, she heard voices, raised in concern, but one thought kept running through her mind, the one truth she could cling to.

_There's no way this could get any worse._

She kept on thinking it, even as she saw the figures rise, blood and viscera dripping from their hands and faces. _This is as bad as it gets._ The armless, ruined torso beginning to twitch as it lay in a pool of it's own fluids, abandoned and discarded.

Slowly, the pinkette's head turned, unconsciously tracking motion to the right, at the end of the hallway by the doors.

Madoka felt a scream rising in her throat, so raw already that she could taste blood. Pink eyes stared hopelessly as the doors swung in again, seeing the blood-soaked figure step into the hallway, one arm trailing behind awkwardly. The uniform was just that, nondescript and coated in gore... but there was no mistaking that shock of blue hair, or the twisted, snarling face of what had once been her best friend.

"S-S-Sayaka-chan!" Madoka sobbed, the sound conveying all of the agony and confusion. _Why? Why was this happening?_ Kyousuke and Nakazawa winced as the unliving swung their heads towards the sound, the horrible red eyes searching for fresh meat.

Homura followed the pinkette's gaze, fumbling with her glasses as she jerked back in disbelief.

* * *

"What's taking so long? I thought you said we needed to get out of here."

Mami, with an effort, refrained from rolling her eyes, even though her back was to the girl. _It's a stressful situation_, she reminded herself. Her nerves were stretched thin as it was. She watched the hallway, straining her ears for any sign of-

"You said 'immediately-'"

"Shh!" Mami shushed.

The green-haired girl let out a petulant sigh, shuffling her feet impatiently. "This is _not _immediate."

With a disbelieving stare, Mami turned around, her long golden curls hanging past her shoulders as she leaned forward, her face centimeters away from the other girl. "Shizuki Hitomi, I realize this has been a very difficult day, _for all of us,_" she added meaningfully, "but I'm listening for _those things_, so if you'd be so kind as to _keep a lid on it_ I'd be very appreciative." She started to turn back, but Hitomi beat her to it.

"We were fine where we were, and ever since you dragged us away we've been running for our lives-"

"Dragged you away?" Mami snarled before catching herself. A deep, calming breath later and the anger dissolved, at least on the outside.

"Girls," Saotome-sensei interjected, worried at the noise. Her voice quavered and she constantly fiddled with her dark-rimmed glasses. "Please, let's not waste energy arguing. Mami-san has done well by us so far, Hitomi-san. She'll get us outside. " Mami was especially glad for the teacher's presence. Not that Kazuko was inspiring, or even comforting. Frankly, the woman was a bit of a mess. But in her purse was their Plan B, the keys to her car, parked outside in the teachers' lot.

Hitomi kept herself from frowning, nodding as if in agreement. But inside, she was seething. It had been _her_, after all, who'd saved Kazuko, warning her of the unknown danger after taking shelter inside of the women's bathroom. Her and-

Kaede piped in. "Let's do what Mami-san wants, Hitomi-chan!" The girl's light brown pigtails swayed as she nodded her head.

_Traitorous little sycophant,_ Hitomi thought, despising the girl for her abrupt shift in loyalty. _Just because someone snatched you away from the grip of a cannibalistic monster didn't mean… anything, really! It was more like being in the right place at the right time._

The sour line of thinking gave Mami enough time to feel confident with her reconnaissance. "I'll go first. Wait for my signal." Hefting the splintered, shoulder height staff in her hands, she crept forward, shifting her grip on the bloody haft nervously. Just like with her guns, it comforted her to sort of… _commune_ with the object. Made it feel more familiar. _For something that began the day as a mop, you've had an interesting morning._

They were in the specialist wing of the school; the third level contained the art, dance, production and recording studios, one of the few places in the school not visible from nearby classrooms. In their infinite wisdom, the designers had decided that watching the young women's fitness class perform their yoga exercises would not be conducive to a productive learning environment. Cut off from the rest of the school, it seemed deceptively peaceful.

Mami waved three times, signalling the all clear. She waited impatiently as the green-haired snobby girl dragged her feet. "Now, the dangerous part." The blonde gingerly opened the door to the stairwell, holding her breath.

* * *

"S-S-Sayaka-chan!"

The blue-haired figure looked up, battle-snarl melting as a wild grin spreading across her face. "Madoka! Kyousuke!" There they were, her best friends, not dead, not _things_, and she was only a classroom away! A large pack of the shambling figures approached the classroom door, but several turned as the blunette spoke, a low moan issuing from the group as they lurched down the hallway towards her. Disgustingly, one unrecognizable mess amongst the four was just a torso and head, both arms missing. It's advance was particularly disturbing, from the legs up strangely immobile.

Sayaka spun into action as the first of the figures came within striking distance. Faced with four opponents in the immediate vicinity, there was no time to waste. In her trek through the hellish hallways of the infested high school, the blunette had learned not to bother with the usual defenses; broken arms and bruised ribs seem to have absolutely no effect at stopping them.

She'd been ready, holding her bokken with one arm, low and poised to arc in a tremendous overhand chop. Ready for the worst. The whole fricking school was a riot of screaming and running and flesh-eating monstrosities. And the pools of blood… she'd slipped _twice_! Her hands clenched in anticipation. The smooth, hard, reassuringly heavy wood of the practice sword felt like an extension of her mind as she pivoted, bringing the curved edge of the 'blade' down on the nearest zombie's head.

"S-Saya-_hic_-ka?"Madoka hiccuped through her tears as a spray of brain matter obscured their vision, using shaky arms to get up off her knees. Homura held her breath, her concern for the pinkette vanishing as she watched the scene unfold, horrified and fascinated and unable to tear her gaze away. The other three had closed in-

Nakazawa made a low, nervous sound as the blunette danced back as the first zombie fell. Lunging, a second reached out with both arms, and Sayaka reversed course suddenly, stepping right into it.

"No!" Homura whispered, but even as she said it the blunette's plan became clear. Thrusting out with both arms, the pointed tip of the wooden sword caught the creature just underneath the chin, jabbing up and in past the roof of it's mouth. The zombie gave a shudder as she twirled the embedded object and the arms dropped limply, it's gore-soaked cafeteria uniform glistening as it fell backward as she gave it a shove with her foot. The body crashed into the next, armless freak, blocking one of the remaining two that were within striking distance.

Homura briefly glanced at the door to the classroom; the bloody smears and demonic faces of the monsters outside nightmarish as they began to push, then slam against the glass. Kyousuke made a whimpering noise from behind the pile of desks. "Sayaka-san, we need help!" He cried, voice breaking. "They're getting in!" he shouted, backing up into a corner.

Sayaka frowned in concentration as she turned the motion of withdrawing her sword into another sweeping arc, bringing the blade around over her head as she crouched, spinning it low and diagonal. The approaching zombie, an unrecognizable student missing half its face, fell to the ground heavily. "Doing the best I can, here, thanks," she growled as the last one standing stumbled forward with eagerly clutching fingers. Breathing steadily, she raised the bokken and brought it almost straight down, angling it just a fraction as it connected with the creature's temple, cracking the cranium like an egg, revealing the grey-green yolk that lay inside in a liberal spray. Without thought, she followed through and brought the weapon down again, this time against the struggling figure she'd knocked to the floor, ending its feeble, limbless struggles as the head burst like an overripe fruit between her unstoppable sword and the immovable floor.

"THEY'RE ALMOST IN!" shouted a panicky Kyousuke, pointing at the small spiderwebbed cracks that had begun to appear beneath the monsters' smashing fists. Nakazawa shushed him nervously, drawing his long brown hair behind his ears and staring at Homura with silent appeal. _Do something!_

The raven-haired girl glanced around, trying to think. The thought of coming up with an idea terrified her; she'd seen what had happened to Masumi. She didn't want to be responsible for any of these people, least of all Kaname Madoka… but if no one else was there to look after the girl, then she would have to be the one to try. Making sure her glasses stayed put, she began dragging some of the few remaining desks to the back of the room, adjacent to the wall between their classroom, the final room before the double doors that Sayaka had appeared from.

There were too many in the hallway for the girl to handle; Homura could see it in the blunette's fearful eyes. _So she's not completely stupid, living out some shogun-era fantasy. She's being kind of… brave._

Breathing heavily, Sayaka shuffled slowly to the glass-walled corridor; then quickly fell back. Even though the walls were transparent, it felt reassuring to have something between her and _them_.

Ten, maybe a dozen of the monsters could be seen up and down the blood-spattered corridor, most concentrated right outside of her classroom. One empty room separated her from the others, and peering inside she decided nothing had happened in there. Taking a deep breath, she held it as she shimmied around the corner, walking several meters toward the zombies before reaching the door.

She didn't let out her breath until the door clicked shut behind her.

"Sayaka-chan, what are you doing?" Madoka felt like a lightning bolt of happiness had struck her, her tired, shattered mind reinvigorated with the realization that her friend not only wasn't dead, she was-

"I'm here to rescue you," the blunette replied behind the pane of glass, matter-of-fact. "Back up."

Madoka obeyed, running into Homura and the two boys as she stepped away. The three eyed the door to the hallway nervously, and a sharp, splintering sound of breaking glass accompanied by an abrupt increase in the volume of the moaning coming from outside the room made two of them jump in fright, possibly losing control of their bladders in a moment of forgivable terror.

A groaning roar came from the doorway, hands grasping through the broken glass, reaching through the makeshift barricade that sat atop the teacher's larger desk. The pile shifted, but held. Sayaka felt panic lend her an almost superhuman strength. She backed up, then lunged with all her might, the tip of her bokken focusing all of her force on a miniscule area of the glass-

_Thwunk_. Numbly, the blunette winced as her hands went numb. The glass held; a small crack radiating from the point of impact looking tiny and pathetic. _Another hundred or so of those and I'll be done_, she thought grimly. She heard them talking, panicked voices raised, and the pile of overturned desks fell away from the door under the press of what seemed like hundreds of grasping, blood-soaked arms clutching blindly, greedily inside-

Gritting her teeth, the blunette slammed her sword into the glass again. More cracks, sharp, shooting pains up the inside of her arms. Again. Again. Blinking furiously, she frantically flexed her hands, trying to ready herself for one more try.

Madoka caught her attention, waving with her entire body. Sayaka backed away, hoping whatever happened in the next several seconds would work as she saw the first of the ghoulish monsters from the hallway clamber into the room, falling off the sturdy desk as the rest began pushing in behind it.

Kyousuke and Nakazawa charged the wall, holding the legs of the desk like a battering ram. With a terrific crash they collided at a full run, the glass fracturing into jagged shards, a substantial portion of the wall shattering and falling away under the impact.

Hissing, Kyousuke grabbed his left hand, heart skipping a beat as he felt the blood pour liberally through his fingers. Looking down, he went pale as he saw the nasty gash running along the back of his hand. "Oh no," he said conversationally, thinking more than anything that _now was not the time_.

"You did it!" Madoka cheered, joining Homura as the black-haired girl began to kick away some of the most dangerous shards.

"We gotta go!" Nakazawa screamed, seeing the first zombie rise meters away, lurching forward. He ran to the newly-made exit, but noticed his friend hadn't moved. Then he saw the hand, and the growing spatter of blood at the boy's feet. "Damn, Kyousuke's hurt!" He grabbed the grey-haired boy by the arm, dragging him backwards forcefully, seeing a lunging, blood-stained former classmate reaching out, grabbing Kyousuke by the shoulder. Homura and Madoka were already through, and screamed a warning.

Sayaka, seeing the lone approaching zombie, had stepped through immediately when she heard that Kyousuke was injured. _Concerned, that's all. For my friend_. As the thing's hands closed in on her old friend, Sayaka slashed over both boys' heads, arcing down to catch the ghoulish creature square across the bridge of its nose. Nakazawa heard the descending weapon hum through the air over his head, but the bone-shattering crunch that punctuated the move was over by the time he managed to duck. Another attack for good measure once the creature's head was braced by the floor to ensure things, and Sayaka was anxiously pushing Nakazawa and Kyousuke out into the room closest to the exit.

"Sayaka-chan!" Madoka sobbed, hugging the life out of her friend. "Oh Sayaka-chan, I was so scared-"

"We're not out of this yet," Sayaka said, panting, glancing between the the hallway that was quickly emptying of zombies, and Kyousuke's bloody hand. Nakazawa and the new girl were tying something around it, tightly. She wanted to be the one helping him… but she was well aware that she was the only one with a sword, even a wooden practice one. The grey-haired boy was as white as a ghost, and superstitiously Sayaka tried to keep that particular thought from flickering through her mind. "Let's go," she said, stretching her aching arms. "Akemi-san," she nodded, happy to see another survivor.

"Miki-san. Thank you," Homura began, about to say something more and looking more earnest and emotional than Sayaka had ever seen.

"No problem," she interrupted, turning to give the hallway one last glance, feeling slightly embarrassed. Kyousuke had been staring at her strangely. _It's hardly my fault I look like this,_ she thought darkly. Most of the zombies had stumbled into the now-abandoned classroom; several had gotten to where Kyousuke had stood and bled all over the floor. They'd be inside this room within seconds. The hallway was almost clear, and as the blunette looked at a cluster of five or so that had remained near one of the classrooms by the opposite exit, that's when she saw him.

Sayaka felt a lump rise in her throat for some reason. She stared across the hallway, two rooms down, at the tall, brown haired boy who was sitting on top of a desk, staring back at her. The boy pointed toward the entrance, the scene of her fight, and made a clapping motion, with a genuine-looking smile. Then his face got serious and he pointed.

Glancing back, the blunette saw the first of the approaching monsters shamble to the hole in the wall. Kyousuke groaned weakly as Nakazawa and Homura supported him, while Madoka wrung her hands nervously. Sayaka opened the door, looking back down the hallway.

The boy stared back, mouth moving. She couldn't be certain, but she thought it was something like _Good luck_. The ghoulish figures that battered against the door and smashed their fists into the wall continued relentlessly as the classmates fled out the doorway, Madoka in the lead. The first of the horde of shambling figures stepped through the broken wall, followed immediately by others. Sayaka felt compelled to look back once more, but needed to get up ahead and so instead threw a half-hearted wave behind her and dashed onward, reaching the double doors before the pinkette.

Bracing herself, Sakaya kicked open the door, holding her bokken with both hands, at the ready.

* * *

The tall boy backed away as his heart pounded painfully inside his chest. _Did she even recognize me?_ he wondered. It had been a while, but Sayaka had been a classmate, back in middle school.

That had been pretty cool, at least. Seeing some of _them _get fucked up.

His eyes were drawn back to the cute girl from class 2C. She wasn't so cute anymore, banging tenaciously at the glass wall, the very wall he'd looked through to catch a glimpse of her as she sat down in the morning.

_Is that irony? _he wondered. He always got that one wrong, somehow.

_What a shitty morning._

For the twentieth time, he cast about the room for something, _anything_, that could be used in defense. _I should have left with everyone else,_ he thought, laughing at his own self-recrimination. _As if any of that matters now!_

Nothing. Everything was plastic, hollow, or a computer. Clenching his hands, he heard the glass begin to crack. A desk leg might do, but he hadn't been able to pry one off. Nervous fingers fumbled, picking up an assortment of pens and pencils that had been left in the panic. As the zombies tore through the glass along the wall, he had time to be grateful that, even if Sayaka hadn't recognized him, she'd at least waved back.

It made it seem less like he was dying alone. A little bit, at least.

Breathing fast, he backed away as the trio of ghouls shambled into the room, blood red eyes staring at him with monstrous hunger, not quite as philosophical about the prospect of imminent death now that it was so… _imminent_.

* * *

The infirmary was a scene of quiet, tense fear bordering on outright panic. Students shuffled about nervously, the majority standing and trying to keep from breaking down or screaming. Most had seen something firsthand, the rest had heard the stories.

As the door opened, Mami was confronted by dozens of tired, startled glances. Stepping to the side in order to let the other three enter, Mami heard a collective sigh as the group realized they were in no danger.

"Where's Nurse Joy?" Mami asked, and a half-dozen voices answered her. She went into the small chamber known by the nursing staff affectionately as the "quarantine room," a small area with cots where students with the flu, or pre-exam anxiety, could rest in comfort and not be forced to hear about the exact circumstances that resulted in some freshman's sprained ankle or bloody nose.

People in the crowd began to murmur, recognizing the semi-famous blonde athlete. Hurriedly, she continued through, Kaede close on her heels.

After a tense conversation with the nurse, Mami debated what to do. Joy didn't know anything about what was going on, other than there was some sort of epidemic that had shut down Tokyo and several other major population centers. The symptoms indicated an influenza mutation, but beyond that… certainly, there had been nothing about flesh-eating zombies-

Turning back to her charge, the nurse bent over the shivering girl, trying to wipe away some of the sweat with a sterile cloth. She wore latex gloves and a white surgical mask, although she was one of those people who would often find occasion to wear the thing over her face. Mami had worked with her for over a year now, volunteering her freshman year when she had an open period in the middle of the day.

Hitomi shoved her way through the crowd, amazed that nobody was talking to her. "Tomoe-san," she said sharply. "We need to-" Stopping, she glared through the doorway. "IS THAT GIRL _INFECTED_?" she demanded loudly, the murmurs of the crowd outside swelling into a concerned babble.

"SHH!" Mami tried, pulling the arm of the annoying underclassmen. "What are you trying to do, incite a panic?" Hitomi pulled her arm away angrily.

"We need to leave! It's not safe here!"

Mami looked back at Nurse Joy helplessly. Part of her considered it her duty to stay, help tend the sick and keep the rest from outright panic. But another part was already considering what she'd need to do next.

There were too many people in here. It was a powder keg waiting for a spark. And, if she was really honest with herself, Mami didn't like the looks of that sick girl. The sunken eyes, the grey pallor…

As if on cue, a wretched noise drew her attention. Drill-tails bouncing energetically as she spun in surprise, Mami watched the girl sit up in the bed, her eyes wide and afraid as a series of choking gasps issued from her. The nurse stepped back before approaching, trying to roll the girl on her side. "Tomoe-san, I need your assistance!"

Mami hesitated. Nurse Joy's lilac eyes stared at her, imploringly.

Suddenly, the choking noises stopped, and the girl turned her head to vomit explosively, a dark red torrent erupting from her mouth, spraying a surprising amount all over her bed and the nurse. Screaming, Joy fell backward, covered in the bloody vomit.

The outer area erupted in screaming.

The girl, spent, fell back limply, her eyes closed and chest rising and falling rapidly. Wiping at her eyes in panic, Nurse Joy stumbled across the room, Mami dodging out of her way, wanting more than anything to avoid whatever the hell was dripping off the woman. As she appeared to the crowded students, the screaming increased, and people began to flee out the door, back into the school.

Mami looked around and found Hitomi, grabbing the frightened girl by the arm. "You're right, it's time to go!" Knowing full well the value of the medicines held in the infirmary, Mami cast about, searching. She grabbed a first-aid kit, opening it to make sure it wasn't empty, and then turned to addressed the remnant of panicked students. "If you want, follow me! We need to-"

Cursing, she saw the figure lurch through the doorway, the bloody-mouthed girl reaching out to grab a nearby student, leaning into his neck as if to kiss-

"RUN!" the blonde cried, mop-turned-staff in one hand, medical kit in the other.

The hallway was flooded with the walking dead, drawn by the panicked mob that had fled screaming. Dodging out of the way of a lumbering brute with arms as thick as her legs, the blonde backpedaled, bumping into something. She thrust the kit behind her, hoping Kaede would have the presence of mind to pick it up as she aimed for the monster's eye-socket with the splintered end of her staff.

As the body fell, Mami saw a flash of green dart by. "Hitomi!" she called, worried that the girl had panicked, but could only watch as the slender figure wove her way through the struggling mass before turning the corner. "Let's go!" she cried, dashing forward through the melee.

Nightmarish images flashed across her field of vision, grasping, clawing hands grabbing and pinning, ripping and rending flesh and bone and digging into bellies and necks, the wet red of muscle and tissue and the hideous shapes of organs being lifted and torn and bitten and chewed, and blood, so much blood, pouring down from mouths and out of wounds and pooling, everywhere spilling until the entire hallway was drowning in it. The smell was overpowering, blood and excrement and the faint whiff of rotting meat.

Gasping for breath, she turned the corner Hitomi had taken, only to see the green-haired girl claw frantically at the floor, trying to pull away from the undead hand around her ankle. "HELP ME!" she screamed, seeing the familiar face of the blonde come into view. She glanced back, terror gripping her heart with painful force as she saw the thing drag itself up to her, and the approaching figures that had seemed to have been waiting for her near the exit. _It's not fair!_

Then, the hand let go, and she was dragged roughly to her feet. "Stay with us, if you want help in the future," the blonde warned, hustling back towards the two figures who stood waiting, poised to flee as the monsters continued to advance.

Frowning, Mami stared at the door with a trace of sullen anger. So close… but they wouldn't be getting out of this hellish building by _this_ particular exit. Sighing, she came to the only conclusion she could. "We have to go back up."

"What? That's where we-"

"No time, there are too many." Mami eyed both directions, and the others understood all too well. Frowning as they moved toward the stairwell, the blonde stared at a young-faced freshman with thumbs hooked under her backpack straps, wondering where she came from. "Who are you?" Now was not the time for civility.

"Mazushii-san," Hitomi said with a sneer. The girl, Mazushii, blushed and hung her head, but her straight bangs revealed her face through the cascade of long brown hair.

"Where's Saotome-sensei?" Mami asked suddenly, looking around. Kaede shrugged, holding up the first-aid kit as if in justification for her ignorance.

"She was…" Mazushii stopped, swallowing. After a moment, Mami placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her toward the stairwell. The girl looked up, her brown eyes brimming with plaintive hope. "C-can I come with you?"

"Of course," Mami replied, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She'd really been counting on the woman. Or at least her car. With a last, regretful glance down the hallway, unable to see any sign of the woman, Mami darted into the stairwell, closing the door shut behind her.

* * *

**Thanks to those of you who've reviewed. All ideas appreciated. If you have strong thoughts on the issue, let me know what kind of weapons you'd equip a bunch of Japanese high school girls with.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Timing is Everything

"Where are we going?" Madoka asked, trailing behind the blunette who led the small, bedraggled group. There had only been one of the monsters beyond the double doors, but the others were probably still pursuing them. They'd ran down on hallway, across a corridor, and had stopped at the drinking fountains to catch their breath.

"I was… kinda… hoping… you'd have… a plan," the blunette grinned through gasping breaths. Forcing herself to inhale slowly and deeply, Sayaka reflexively wiped her forehead with the back of her sleeve. Unfortunately, the blood-drenched cloth did little to alleviate the uncomfortable sheen of sweat, and she panicked as her left eye started to sting.

"Ugh! It's getting in my eyes!" she hissed frantically, the thought of blinking in blood disgusting and frightening at the same time. "Gah!" _Infected_ blood. Her knuckles were skinned, and numerous cuts and scrapes already adorned her arms and legs, but the mental image of getting it in her eye was somehow much creepier.

Luckily, Madoka was right behind her. As her best friend had reeled back in distress, she'd understood and put a gentle hand on the blunette's shoulder, supporting her while wiping away at her eyes with a freshly washed sleeve, softly making _shush_ing noises. Sayaka sheepishly froze in place, resisting the urge to open her eyes as the pinkette continued to rub away the worst of the filth.

"What's wrong?" Nakazawa whispered, out of breath from supporting the stumbling boy at his side. Homura watched, following behind a pace, ready to catch Kyousuke if he should fall. Which is exactly what it looked like he was about to do, pale-faced and swaying on his feet.

"Sayaka-chan is a mess," Madoka replied, keeping her voice down without having to resort to whispering. "I don't think it's safe, being covered in… b-blood," she gulped. "Like that." The only good thing about her friend's appearance was that none of the blood seemed to be her own. The blunette could only agree, feeling wretched underneath the coating of bodily fluids. Her arms were blood-red, literally, right up past the elbows. Her left side was drenched in it, and she was pretty certain there was some in her hair… she hadn't had the courage to examine it, and since it was plastered away from her face, it suited her fine for the moment. "We need to get our stuff, from our lockers."

It was the only place Sayaka was fairly certain was clear, having been here a short time ago. She agreed with a nod, thinking of her backpack and the rest of the contents of her duffel bag, and Akemi Homura was awfully quick to support the notion, obviously eager to retrieve something as well.

The thought of some clean clothes was more than welcome, banishing the disgust she felt regarding her blood-stained attire. Except when she thought about how she must look, and how Kyousuke would remember her. Or Madoka, for that matter. Looking like some kind of… mass murderer. "Thanks, Madoka-chan," she breathed, feeling the girl give her shoulder a gentle pat. She opened her eyes, relieved temporarily despite seeing her friends disgusted expression as she wiped her hand against the wall, leaving a smear of crimson so dark it was nearly brown. Immediately, the swordswoman began glancing around, poking her head into the "T" intersection, one hallway leading toward the cafeteria and commons area, the other towards their lockers and the stairway to the gymnasium downstairs.

Sayaka made a quick gesture, creeping down the hallway on the balls of her feet, feeling like a spring compressed and ready to be sprung any which way. She tried the slow breathing again, but the sense of anxiety continued to plague her as she stealthily made her way to the end of the corridor.

_Technically, I probably am a mass murderer. Those things that I've been smashing to death, eight, to be exact, not that I was counting, but hey it's not like that's something I'm going to forget soon… they were people, at least an hour ago. I'm not sure how this is going to be interpreted by the police._ It hadn't crossed her mind that this was anything but a finite, local occurrence that left the rest of the outside world unscathed. "Do you think killing those _zombies_," she emphasized with both her eyes and voice, "is, like, murder?"

"Technically, yes." Homura's answer took both friends by surprise, the slender transfer student looking up from rubbing her shoulder. "Well, _technically_, mass murder." She shrugged, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "I don't think there's a separate statute regarding the possibility of reanimated corpses. Your obvious defense, of course, is _self-defense_. Although you'd have a difficult time convincing a judge that an unarmed civilian posed a deadly threat without introducing evidence about the creatures being, essentially, zombies, and of course the government would never allow that to happen."

Sayaka looked at the black-haired girl blankly. Nakazawa interrupted the staring contest. "Uh, guys, I mean girls, or… um, isn't this a bad time? Ladies?" He glanced around meaningfully, then nodded his head at Kyousuke.

The boy was as white as a sheet. "Kyousuke-kun, can you keep going?" Sayaka asked, approaching him for the first time, all too aware of her blood-spattered appearance. The grey-haired boy swayed and instinctively she reached out to grab his shoulder. His far-away gaze came into focus on the messy blunette.

"Sayaka-chan, it _is _you," he murmured woozily. Sayaka glanced at the other three in concern. He wobbled a bit. "Yes, yes we can go. But… we have to go back. Something's missing."

She patted him on the shoulder gently. "We'll find it," she lied, and he smiled, reassured.

They crept forward silently, and a few tense minutes and false scares later, they came to the hallway with their lockers.

Nakazawa stood guard near the corner, watching for anything entering the "L" shaped intersection. Periodically, he found himself glancing back at the glowing red Exit sign shining like a beacon further along down the hallway.

Lockers were quickly ransacked, Homura coming away with a worn backpack and wearing a set of sport glasses with a ridiculous strap running behind her head. Feeling self-conscious of wearing what she essentially considered Phy Ed equipment, Homura turned to relieve Nakazawa, taking up vigil at the hallway intersection.

Sayaka stripped off her blouse without concern for modesty, eager to get the filthy thing off. She noticed her bra was stained as well, but there was only so far she was willing to go in the name of cleanliness. She grabbed two extra shirts from her equipment bag, using one to rub down her face and hair to get the worst of the damp unpleasantness out before slipping into the other. Unfortunately, they were unwashed, and the shirts both smelled a little ripe, but it was better than nothing. _Probably smell like blood and crap soon anyway._ That was a startling revelation: blood, in enough quantity, smelled. It was a metallic scent, reminding her of the taste of water from old pipes, or maybe copper.

Then she began drawing out the pieces of her _bogu_. The kendo practice armor came in four parts; the _men_, a helmet with a hard mesh front and shoulder protectors, the mitten-like gloves called _kote _that covered her hands and forearms, the chest piece made of rigid plastic, and the leg and groin protection.

She was tempted, but ultimately just picked up the gloves. Her hands were raw, and she figured if she was going to go down swinging, some added protection for her forearms might come in handy. Chuckling at her own pun, she tried to think of a way to use it before it was forgotten.

Madoka was busy stuffing books and things in her backpack. "Madoka-chan," Sayaka began, waiting to finish until the pinkette looked up briefly. The blunette raised her gauntleted fists. "These might come in handy." She waited, but Madoka just smiled a little, nodding before returning to cramming the entire contents of her locker into the pink cat-themed backpack. Sighing in disappointment, the blunette approached her friend. "Hey, you don't really need all that stuff, Madok-"

"But these books are _expensive_, Sayaka-chan! And I need my things. I can't leave Mr. Binky or Pickles or any of the rest here, I just can't!" She tried to convey her feelings to the taller girl with a meaningful, desperate look.

Nakazawa popped his head around the corner, and his eyes went wide. "Whoa, you have a suit of armor?!" he asked, shocked. Sayaka sighed.

"Help yourself, but think about this: we've been running for most of the past ten minutes. As long as we're not trapped inside of some room again, we'll probably be running until we get clear of this hell-hole." She'd _always _called the school that, and saying it again was almost like saying_ I-told-you-so_ to the universe, for all the good that did any of them. "Probably not worth the extra weight."

"Sayaka-chan," Nakazawa began, his eyes focused on the pieces of her armor. Something about the wild, ichor-stained blue hair, coupled with the remnant smudges of red around her face, made it hard for him to look right at her. Amazed at what he'd seen in the hallway, and more than a little afraid of the crazy blue murder-eyes and that ferocious expression his classmate had worn, the boy had to swallow his unease. "You _have _to put that on."

"Nakazawa-kun, I just told you-"

He bent over, hefting a piece. "It hardly weighs anything! You've been bashing heads, and even though all _I've _done is see people get ripped apart, _I've seen people get ripped apart._ That armor, that helmet… that's exactly what you need. They keep biting people! The neck, the shoulder, the face… it doesn't matter."

Sayaka frowned, considering. "The peripheral vision is restricted by the helmet. I dunno…"

Nakazawa looked up, finally. The blunette couldn't help but feel awkward under his strange, intense expression. "We can help. The least we can do is watch out for trouble. We have plenty of eyes. What we need is someone who can kick ass and won't get eaten." He looked at her, seeming to dare her to find fault with his argument. "I'd probably fall down flat on my face, if I tried wearing it. You know how to move in it, you've _practiced_ in it. You should wear it."

She shrugged, then began strapping the armor on, leaving behind the thick leggings that were the most restrictive part of the outfit, at least in terms of movement. "Well, if it slows me down I hope you don't leave me behind," she joked.

Nakazawa turned away. "I don't think any of us would even _consider _leaving you behind, Sayaka-chan."

_If she's taking her armor, I'm taking Mr. Binky!_ Madoka thought fiercely, looking at the pile of expensive, glossy-paged textbooks lying on the floor of her locker with regret as she zipped up the backpack, fuzzy companions safely inside, along with the bento box she'd brought for lunch and her purse.

Homura had barely gotten Kyousuke back on his feet when she heard the noise. Glancing at Nakazawa, she looked back down the hallway.

* * *

Screams in the distance drew the blonde's attention. Something about the plaintive, desperate cries were impossible to ignore. Each time she heard that hideous sound of someone calling out hopelessly for help, terrified and alone… it tugged at her. She wanted to help, she didn't want anyone to suffer this fate, so much more terrible than mere death. She wanted to save them.

A flood of the living dead flowed through the lower level of Mitakihara High, a river of shattered, bloodied, lurching figures that stumbled toward the door to the stairs, death approaching from three directions.

She wanted to save them. But she couldn't.

Steeling herself, Mami slammed the door shut, turning her back on the hapless victim and focusing on the immediate concern of escape. She turned toward the stairs, seeing the feet of one of the girls disappearing around the corner. Blinking tears from her eyes, Mami took a series of deep breaths, flooding her body with oxygen as she raced up the stairs behind the three others.

Behind her, the doorway burst open, the shambling horde moaning with unholy harmony, an unending, ever-changing, discordant symphony of doom echoing up the stairwell..

"RUUUN!" she screamed, glancing back to watch the hideous wave of inhumanity wash up against the staircase, the figures clambering over one another in a frenzied attempt to claw their way up, driven by the unquenchable craving for succulent, living flesh.

* * *

Sayaka, Madoka, Homura and Nakazawa stared down the hallway with extreme trepidation. "Perhaps we should go-" Homura started to say, and then the doors leading toward the cafeteria swung open, revealing a pack of figures that shuffled into the room, limbs moving jerkily, heads lolling, aimless.

Carefully, the four stepped back. Sayaka motioned in the direction they'd come, thinking of a stairwell that led almost directly to the infirmary. Maybe that would prove to be a safe place, some kind of respite from the ever-present danger these unpredictable, roaming monsters posed. At the very least, it was close to one of the main exits. Earlier, looking down between the glass partitions, they'd seen numerous things moving around, running, shuffling, wrestling on the ground… but it was possible they'd moved on.

Homura bent down, unconsciously reaching up to keep her glasses in place. Smiling, she realized she didn't need to worry about _that _annoying problem anymore. She'd always wondered what would happen if this kind of apocalyptic, extinction-level event ever played out. She had strong suspicions that secret government agencies were, even now, working to bury the truth and put a proverbial lid on the whole fiasco. Maybe another 'nuclear reactor meltdown', since she'd read on the forums that the government had used that particular ploy to good effect in the past.

One thing she didn't have to worry about was looking fashionable. Or even normal. She glanced unconsciously at the fully-armored blunette, who obviously felt the same way.

"Akemi-san?" Blinking, she dropped her hand, hooking her arm underneath Kyousuke's. Silently, she and the long-haired boy from the front row, Nakazawa, picked up the violinist. The boy's face was pale, almost ashen… he looked dead to Homura, but she had to admit that his greyish hair and slender physique didn't give him a feeling of robust vitality in the first place.

Still, circumspectly, she held two fingers to his neck, trying to feel the pulse-

"Hey," Nakazawa whispered, looking disapproving. "What are you-"

Kyousuke moaned.

Down the hallway, the low hum of the creatures went silent. The shuffling of feet stopped.

Sayaka looked at the others nervously. Frantically, she began waving them down the hallway, but Homura had panicked at the sound of the moan, her fingers unable to instantly find a steady beat and uncomfortably close to the boy's mouth. _If he is still a boy_.

From down the hallway, something horrible let out a terrible wail. Instantly, it had become a choir of hellish noise. "Go!" Sayaka roared, stepping past the others and positioning herself in the rear, hoping that they'd get to the door in time-

Grunting as he found himself suddenly supporting all of Kyousuke's weight, Nakazawa picked the boy up, cradling the weakly struggling figure in both arms as he stumbled forward. Homura felt no loyalty towards either boy, not to mention interest, but the shocked look of the pinkette was enough to send her back, ready to support if possible.

"Sayaka-chan, should I-" Madoka began, before the first of the monsters became visible around the corner. The stairwell was twenty meters back, and she'd retreated perhaps five. Kyousuke was still just ahead of her, Nakazawa struggling to carry the burden.

_Come on, he's not that heavy_, Sayaka thought, afraid and dismayed both. The lurching gait of the large creature was too fast, almost a run. "Madoka, get to the stairs!" _Much_ faster than those she'd fought before. Within seconds, a half-dozen figures came into view as they rounded the corner, faces twisted masks of gnashing teeth and blood-drenched mouths, their hands dark with their messy feast. Several bore terrible wounds, gaping tears into their flesh revealing tendon and bone through the rotting meat.

They wore crimson-stained uniforms, the maintenance personnel, Sayaka realized. Continuing to back up, she stumbled into Nakazawa, who cursed loudly. "Sorry," she yelled, panting as the creatures closed the distance, swiftly shambling across the hallway.

_Shit. Fuck._ Through the helmet's wire-mesh faceguard, Sayaka watched as the first of the creatures came at her, the whites of its eyes blood-red and the dripping, gore-stained face square and vaguely familiar… with a strange sense of inevitability, she looked more closely, noting the missing limb, and the large ring of keys jangling at his belt. At _its _belt. Because it was not Hokannin-san, not anymore.

_Always wanted to do this,_ she thought, and the shaky hands and rapid breathing vanished as intention became action and once again she was flowing through the form, advancing with a single step as she twisted her torso, the momentum working in tandem with her swinging arms as the bokken sliced through the air, humming right up until the point of impact, punctuated by a wet crunch.

Her longtime nemesis, second only to Vice Principal Tetsuo, crumpled, falling like a sack of rice. She skipped backwards, noting the others were very close to the door now, but the remaining monsters were uncomfortably close, a tight-knit pack that would be impossible to deal with one at a time.

Madoka got to the stairwell, feeling amazingly calm and collected with the knowledge that her friends lives depending on her actions. Carefully, she pulled open the door a crack, hiding behind it but listening for anything.

The rapid patter of steps, very loud and _very _close. And, unmistakably, the loud, demanding moans of dozens and dozens of the hungry dead. _Oh no._

Gingerly, she closed the door. "Sayaka-chan," she called, "there's zombies in there, lots!"

_Godammit all to hell! _raged the blunette, feeling their options diminishing by the second. Homura approached the door, and was bowled over by several running figures flew out.

"Hitomi-chan!" Madoka screamed, excited to see her friend and terrified of being eaten and feeling a little nauseous at the moment. "Mazushii-chan?" Her stomach had an unpleasant, liquidy feeling as she saw the other two girls dashing up the stairwell, the brown-pigtailed Kaede from class and, of all people-

"Mami-san!" she cried, and Homura looked up from the floor. She saw, through the door that had been swung wide, the busty blonde bounce her way up the last half-flight of stairs, saw the brown-haired, pigtailed girl trip. She watched as the first shadowy figure emerged from below, grasping, dripping hands clutching at the girl's leg-

"Watch out!" the raven-haired girl cried, pointing helplessly-

Another arm appeared, fingers clenching around the girl's pigtail, and Kaede began screaming shrilly as she was yanked backward-

Sayaka, determined to buy her friends as much time as she could, found herself feeling exceptionally fatalistic all of a sudden, lunging right at the group. There was a commotion behind her, but her pulse pounded in her ears as she dealt with the immediate threat before her. She jabbed one right through the eye, darting backward before the clutching fingers could grab hold. Armor or not, she doubted anyone would escape the grip of several of the infernally strong monsters.

Madoka's grin of amazed relief became a grimace of horror, seeing the friendly brown-haired girl from class fall backwards, behind the welcome sight of Mami. The blonde saw her look and turned back in dismay, the younger girl had been out of breath, but they'd had to keep running-

"Help me!" Kaede found her breath as her legs were grabbed, yanked, and white hot pain lanced through her thigh, then her calves. "Mami!" Screaming, she felt each tendon shred as human teeth bit deep into the back of her legs, hamstringing her while filthy, slimy, wet fingers dug into her flesh. "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Mami took a step down, the ascending horde momentarily preoccupied and paying her no heed. Madoka screamed, "No! Mami, no!"

Frozen, the blonde could only stare at those accusing, pain-filled eyes as the girl's screams increased an octave. Horrified, she saw the eyes bulge, the zombies greedily fighting over the still-living meal, her legs pulled in opposite directions until a horrible wet SNAP-

Homura grabbed the blonde by her hair and dragged her backwards, kicking the door shut behind her. The sight of that girl, a classmate whose name she couldn't quite remember, being split apart like a wishbone, the copious amounts of blood that spurted out of the horrendous wounds, snapped bone poking straight through skin as the girl's leg, mercifully, went silent. Turning, she vomited loudly, her meager breakfast spilling across the tiles, maintaining her grip not to pull but for support. Hitomi was screaming and the plain, brown-haired girl from class was shaking with fright, looking between the doorway and the approaching monsters.

Mami snarled, wrenching free from the clutches of the smaller, slighter transfer student, who staggered back. "What the hell are you doing, Akemi-san?" she choked, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.

"She's dead," Madoka said quietly, pointing down the hallway. "Sayaka-chan's not, though, and she needs your help!" She'd seen the bloodstained, makeshift spear or staff the girl held, and besides, as one of her closest friends, Madoka knew all about the Olympic hopeful.

Mami blinked, berating herself for even taking that long as she rushed headlong down the hallway.

Two corpses were laid out on the ground before Sayaka felt one of the ghoulish talons close around her arm. She tried to squirm free, but the grip was unbreakable, like she was being held by a metal statue. Desperately, she tried to transfer her sword to her left hand, but it fell to the floor with a clatter as more of the creatures bore down on her. Pinned beneath multiple bodies, Sayaka tried to make it as hard as possible to get a bite in, thrashing about madly. She felt one try to take a chunk out of her forearm, the thick gauntlets pinching her painfully. A hideous, bloodstained maw yawned open like the pit of doom, its torn and flayed tongue dripping a slow string of viscous red goo that hung from snarling lips as it descended. Unable to twist away, she couldn't keep her eyes from shutting tightly as the thing bit at her face, feeling the shock and hearing the grating as teeth bit at her mask, centimeters away from her flesh, fragments raining down on her left cheek as enamel shattered against the tough metal protector. With a burst of desperate energy, she tried to head-butt the thing, but couldn't get any leverage. Blinking back tears, she readied herself for one final, last-ditch attempt to escape-

Mami ran up to the nearest figure that crouched atop her kohai, jabbing out with her sharp stick at the temple and pulling back before thrusting it out again, catching a zombie in the sternum and knocking it back. "Sayaka-chan!" she cried, using her staff to push another of the creatures off the prone blunette. She watched the girl lash out at one of her remaining attackers with an armored fist, smashing it's teeth and nose in, and smiled. It was a fierce smile, mid-strike against the last of the creatures on top of the scrabbling, armored figure, knocking it back and then stabbing down, thrusting with both hands until she found the eye.

Sayaka, gasping and sweating and no longer needing to pee, wrestled herself away from the disoriented zombie she'd punched in the face, rolling across the hallway to grab her fallen sword. Another of the things recovered from Mami's assault and lunged toward her with impressive speed. Still prone, she spun the sword low to the ground, catching the nameless custodian in the ankle. It fell, crashing right on top of her.

Mami shot a glance behind her, seeing the flash of motion and then watching one of the things fall to the ground. With a quick step, she used the broken mop-handle as a lever, hoisting the zombie off the blunette as she dashed backwards. Sayaka picked herself up from the ground, and Mami stabbed repeatedly at the fallen thing, unable to stop its struggles.

On her feet, Sayaka threw herself forward, slamming the tip of her sword into the thing's face, pushing it back to create some distance before pulling back and sweeping the wooden blade down in an overhead slice, fully aware that Mami stood not a meter away, trying to end the other one before it could get up.

Madoka and Homura watched, the black-haired girl fiddling with her backpack nervously until the corpses were again corpses, unmoving and starting to stink. Hitomi was red-faced and in tears, bent over Kyousuke, exchanging angry words with Nakazawa while Mazushii darted forward as soon as the battle was over, eager to be away from the door.

"No time for greetings, we need to run!" Mami said urgently, and every single exhausted, emotionally drained body managed to pick itself up and hustle down the hallway. Before they were halfway to the corner, the first of the ghoulish forms shambled out of the stairwell, red and wet with fresh blood, turning in their direction as first three, then eight, then more, and more zombies began to pour out through the door.

Turning the corner, a lone undead stood in their way, dropping quickly to Mami's spear thrust, and finished off by the descending bokken. Reaching the door, the two shared a glance, and turned to face the others.

Sayaka waited for Mami to take charge, but the silence stretched for a long moment. Turning, she was puzzled by the look the older girl was giving her, almost expectant.

"Well?" Hitomi asked, glancing behind her nervously.

"Mami-san?"

"You've done well for yourselves, kohai." The blonde smiled warmly, the blood spattering her face reminiscent of some tribal warpaint. Someone made an impatient noise, and she looked at the group. "Nakazawa-san and Akemi-san… and Mazushii-san, you three keep Kamijou-san moving. There's no telling what is on the other side of these doors," she whispered, giving Madoka a severe case of the creeps. "Sayaka-chan and I will be up front, clearing a path. Shizuki-san, Madoka-chan, please follow behind the others; your job is to let us know if anything is happening. _Anything_." She stared at the green-haired girl, trying to make clear her expectations. As she turned to Madoka, she couldn't help grinning proudly at the brave face the girl was putting on.

She turned to the door, the moans beginning to reverberate throughout the corridor, the sound of shuffling feet getting closer. "Whatever happens, follow us. We'll try to go straight though; there's a ladder with access to the roof in the old equipment room, it's just on the other side of-"

Opening the door, her whisper died in her throat. A small glass walkway connected the corridor with the cafeteria, and the scene before her was beyond nightmarish.

_Oh god._

_Shit._

_Really? Really?!_

_I knew she'd get me killed!_

_No…_

_How can we possibly…_

_So many_. Mami's thought, like everyone else's, was tinged with a strong shade of hopelessness. But choice was suddenly taken out of the equation as the first of the stairwell zombies turned the corner behind them, their moans growing more agitated as they came into sight.

The cafeteria was a large room, one glass wall abutting the gymnasium, allowing students to watch the victories and failures of the freshmen class, who invariably were given the midday Phy Ed slot. Sayaka had adjusted to it quickly, but Madoka was still mortified whenever she'd toss up a ball and fail to connect with rim, net or backboard entirely, and not just from the sense of failure. Mostly, it was the ensuing cheers of the seniors who watched from above that she couldn't stand.

Unlike the uncomfortable, hard-seated, folding rectangle tables they'd sat at back during junior high, ten to a row, the excessive demands of Mitakihara High and the increasing responsibility each student was burdened with as they approached adulthood was rewarded with more adult-like seating. Circular tables by the dozen were staggered in rows throughout the room, each seating six to eight, depending on how close of friends you were. Many of them were overturned, and fallen chairs littered the floor. The room had no outside-facing walls, which seemed odd to Sayaka, but explained why so many students enjoyed sneaking away to the roof during break.

They entered towards the middle of the room; the kitchen and serving area to their left, and several rows of tables to their right. The place was filled with shuffling, blood-stained dead, and the sound of a scuffle in the kitchen turned into a loud crashing of falling cookware. Everyone winced, and Mami let Sayaka take the lead as they stepped into the room, tense and alert.

Sayaka, glancing at towards the kitchen area, saw motion behind the partition separating the cooks from the cafeteria workers. Glancing around, she noticed many of the zombies among the tables had turned, slowly but intently moving toward the kitchen. There had to be thirty of the things, but most continued lurching aimlessly through the room. So far, none appeared to have noticed them. That just left the ones coming up from behind…

Clenching her bokken tightly for a moment before relaxing into the supple grip of a swordswoman, Sayaka advanced swiftly. Instead of trying to find a clear path, she found a relatively clear path with isolated zombies. She crept up behind a swaying, blood-stained figure with a good-sized tear across it's throat, the cafeteria uniform nearly unrecognizable.

_Crack_. Even as the thing was falling, she continued on, the next one turning at the sound.

Mami kept her eyes moving, watching the sides and what lay ahead of them. She noticed the zombie turn towards them with a flash of trepidation, fearing what would happen if-

The creature let out a sharp moan just as Sayaka swung, the crunching of bone not silencing the sound quickly enough. Worried, Mami's eyes darted around, watching as several of the things around them slowly turn toward the sound. She held her breath.

Another moan, and another. The chorus was taken up and suddenly the aimless shuffling became a purposeful shambling, the creatures beginning to converge.

"Get ready to run!" whispered Sayaka fiercely, adjusting her grip, ready to break through to the left, towards the kitchen.

A metallic cacophony from that direction startled her; the sound of pots and pans and god knows what hitting the floor of the kitchen, rattling for long seconds before it ended. When it did, the zombies had already turned and begun walking towards the kitchen.

Sayaka heard the panicked whine as the young man burst out of the kitchen, fleeing several pursuers in hairnets and blood-spattered aprons. She rushed forward, cracking the skull of another of the creatures from behind. "Hey, over here!" she called, instinctively offering help to the panicked runner.

"What are you doing?!" Hitomi shout-whispered, dismayed at the noise. She looked around, imagining hungry, crimson-edged eyes turning back, looking at her like meat-

The short, pudgy form of the young man kept going, unwilling or unable to respond. Sayaka opened her mouth again, but Mami tapped her on the shoulder, shaking her head. _Too many,_ she mouthed sadly. Downcast, the blunette closed her mouth, advancing up behind the next of the slowly lumbering monsters.

Tired, the runner got tripped up on some fallen chairs, turning the stumble into a series of hops from which he tried, and failed, to recover his balance. Crashing to the ground, his whimper was audible halfway across the room, a wounded, exhausted sob. "Help," he mouthed silently, trying to regain his breath.

The ghoulish cafeteria workers had stopped pouring out of the kitchen, adding their numbers to the already crowded dining area. The man, halfway across the room, was making panicky, almost squealing screams as he struggled for breath, rising and stumbling and rising again, glancing around frantically at the approaching creatures coming at him from every direction.

Madoka, horrified, wrenched her gaze away from the looming tragedy, watching a group break off from the rest, approaching them from behind and to the right as they made their way to the kitchen. "Psst!" Madoka pointed, and Mami's eyes picked out the threat.

"Go over the counter," Homura offered, hoping that whatever had been lurking in the kitchen had followed the guy who'd provided them with exactly the distraction they'd needed. She tried not to think to hard about him as he began screaming, the first of the ghastly figures reaching down-

Sayaka latched onto the idea in an instant. "Go!" she whispered fiercely, nodding to Mami. The blonde took off, deftly climbing over the waist-high partition and spinning around with her makeshift staff, ready for anything. A kitchen's worth of pots and pans and metal trays littered the floor, but aside from that, and the blood, nothing jumped out at her.

She waved the rest in. Sayaka slid across last, giving Kyousuke a gentle but firm shove across the metal counter before climbing up herself.

The eight or so monsters that followed continued forward.

"We need to get out through the door in the other room, I don't know if this place has any other access points, and don't want to risk getting trapped in a storage room." Mami crept along the wall separating the kitchen from the supply area, peeking around the corner.

"Grab something, anything you can," urged Sayaka, looking around and seeing cookware and utensils, searching for the gleam of a sharp knife. Madoka found several long, triangular blades beneath the counter, and Hitomi picked up an iron skillet, hefting it with both arms. Nakazawa, looking around, accepted a knife from Madoka, sliding it into his belt before pointing out something underneath the industrial-sized range.

Homura leaned down, unfastening the plastic clips that held the half-sized fire extinguisher. She quickly familiarized herself with the trigger mechanism, and tried to decide if she should swing it like a bat or try and smash things with the metal cylinder's base.

"Gotta go," Sayaka whispered, nodding to Madoka and smiling as the girl stuffed several sharp objects into her backpack before zipping it up. Crouched, the group made their way around the scattered pots and pans, hearing something bang into the counter behind them, hard. The slamming continued, growing more insistent.

Looking out from behind the doorway, Mami and Sayaka surveyed the scene. Most of the monsters were bunched up in the middle of the room, piling around the fallen man. To their left, three scattered zombies lurched between overturned tables and scattered chairs. Mami was more worried about twisting an ankle than anything. "We'll have to be careful," she warned, motioning for the others to follow her.

"No. NO! N-"

Hearts freezing, the group looked as one back at the figure of Kyousuke, thrashing limply in Nakazawa's arms. Homura, wide-eyed, had her hand clamped over the boy's mouth, muffling the protests.

The kitchen erupted in sound as something kicked around the metal cookware littering the floor, the sound echoing harshly. "Let's move!" Mami whispered, stepping out and looking back to see several shapes disappear, crawling over the counter she herself had. "Hurry!" She walked out to flank the first of the three zombies between them and the doorway out.

Madoka, clutching a long knife with both hands, felt her heart beat painfully in her chest as the lurching figures began to stumble out of the cooking area, staring at her with hungry eyes as she slowly backed away. "They're coming!" she whispered, looking at Hitomi's panicked expression and wondering if her own matched.

Mami glanced around, hopeful of their chances._ Unless... If that hallway isn't clear..._

Forcing the thought from her mind, the blonde frowned, hearing the wet, tearing sounds coming from the dining area, the subdued grinding of metal across tile as something slid across the kitchen behind them. With crystal clarity, she heard the footsteps behind her, Nakazawa's grunt and Hitomi's rapid breathing and Mazushii's tiny whimper and Kyousuke's muffled moan.

The hum of the immense refrigerator and walk-in freezer, the gentle flow of air through the vents, the far off thrum from the boiler room, all of the infinitesimal sounds that blend together, unnoticed due to their constant presence... everything suddenly had stopped. Mami looked around, feeling something was very wrong.

And then, the lights went out.

* * *

**Happy Valentine's Day if you're into that kind of thing.**

**Thanks so much to all who've shown interest; even if you end up hating me by the end, which you will if I do my job right, know that your comments are my inspiration.**

**StormFarron185, Faust91x, RacheltheBooksandAnimeGeek, kyosayalove, Kurio-Yasha, I greatly appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, and am particularly thrilled when your ideas mesh so well with my own. Also, when they bring up something I haven't considered but that would make a brilliant addition. Many thanks.**

**And knowing I made someone lose their appetite while reading this… not sure what can top that.**


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